Photos: Ford’s push to go green

Deborah Mielewski, right, winds up to toss a handful of shredded money at Ellen Lee in Ford’s Sustainable Materials Lab in Dearborn, Mich. (Tim Galloway / For The Times)

June 27, 2014 6:49 PM PT

Ford Motor Co. and H.J. Heinz Co. are working to turn discarded tomato skins into floor mats. This is just one of Ford’s efforts to use fewer petroleum-based materials and more sustainable materials, such as soy oil in seat cushions and shredded dollar bills in coin trays.

Various combinations of tomato fiber and polypropylene are lined up on a bench at the Ford Research and Innovation Center in Dearborn, Mich. Ford seeks to turn tomato skins into floor mats. (Tim Galloway / For The Times)

Researcher Ellen Lee pours a mixture of tomato fiber and polypropylene into the hopper of an extruder at a Ford lab in Dearborn, Mich. (Tim Galloway / For The Times)

Researcher Ellen Lee holds her hand out to catch freshly made pellets in the Sustainable Materials Lab at the Ford Research and Innovation Center in Dearborn, Mich. (Tim Galloway / For The Times)

A strand of hot plastic made from tomato fiber and polypropylene is squeezed out of an extruder and into a trough of water to cool and harden it in the Sustainable Materials Lab at the Ford Research and Innovation Center in Dearborn, Mich. (Tim Galloway / For The Times)

Alper Kiziltas holds items made of polypropylene and wheat straw in the Sustainable Materials Lab at the Ford Research and Innovation Center in Dearborn, Mich. (Tim Galloway / For The Times)

Intern Arianna Leonardi, 20, right, monitors times and temperatures while intern Adam Von Wiemeersch, 17, waits for the task to be completed in the Sustainable Materials Lab at the Ford Research and Innovation Center in Dearborn, Mich. (Tim Galloway / For The Times)

Various sustainable materials such as coconut fiber, tomato fiber, shredded money and soybeans sit out on a bench in the Sustainable Materials Lab at the Ford Research and Innovation Center in Dearborn, Mich. (Tim Galloway / For The Times)

A display showcases a door panel made of sustainable materials in the Sustainable Materials Lab at the Ford Research and Innovation Center in Dearborn, Mich. (Tim Galloway / For The Times)